In this article for Mint, Dr Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Executive Director, Artha Global, looks beyond the headline figures in the World Bank’s October 2026 poverty brief. The brief shows India’s extreme poverty rate falling from 27.1% to 2.6% between 2011 and 2023. He argues that India, now a middle income country, should benchmark its progress against the higher $4.2-a-day poverty line, under which 16.1% of the population remains poor, and should develop an updated domestic poverty line. He also highlights three features of poverty today: its concentration in the Gangetic belt, persistent gaps in sanitation, and a shift from chronic to transient poverty driven by sudden income shocks. Each, he argues, needs a different policy response.

Read more here